Liberty Falling (Anna Pigeon Mysteries)

When Anna Pigeon left New York City after her husband was killed, she hoped it would be forever. But now her sister Molly is clinging to life in an uptown hospital ICU, so Anna has reluctantly returned. Rooming with a friend and fellow park ranger in close quarters on Liberty Island---the small strip of land that is home to Lady Liberty---Anna spends her free time exploring the grand monument and the crumbling, overgrown, and eerie ruins in the unrestored sections of nearby Ellis Island. But the peace she seeks here is shattered when she finds herself among a crowd gathered at the Lady's base, staring at the broken body of a teenager who fell---or was pushed---to her death.

The reason behind the youthful girl's fatal plunge is not the only mystery alive on these historic sites---nor will hers be the only death. Hidden in a dangerous labyrinth of stone, glass, and steel are secrets Anna Pigeon is now compelled to uncover...and an insidious threat to herself and to others that could wreak havoc on a nation's proudest day.

When Anna Pigeon left New York City after her husband was killed, she hoped it would be forever. But now her sister Molly is clinging to life in an uptown hospital ICU, so Anna has reluctantly returned. Rooming with a friend and fellow park ranger in close quarters on Liberty Island---the small strip of land that is home to Lady Liberty---Anna spends her free time exploring the grand monument and the crumbling, overgrown, and eerie ruins in the unrestored sections of nearby Ellis Island. But the peace she seeks here is shattered when she finds herself among a crowd gathered at the Lady's base, staring at the broken body of a teenager who fell---or was pushed---to her death.

The reason behind the youthful girl's fatal plunge is not the only mystery alive on these historic sites---nor will hers be the only death. Hidden in a dangerous labyrinth of stone, glass, and steel are secrets Anna Pigeon is now compelled to uncover...and an insidious threat to herself and to others that could wreak havoc on a nation's proudest day.

Amazon.com
Imagine Nevada Barr's delight in discovering that there is actually a national park right smack in the middle of New York City--Gateways Park, which encompasses Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. She could continue her splendid series about park ranger Anna Pigeon and still do some serious shopping at Bendel's and Berghdorf's, the kind of stores you don't find in the New Mexico cave setting of Blind Descent (her last adventure). The ploy works: Barr is probably the only mystery writer who could see a natural environment under New York's slick and sleazy skin.

Anna is in Manhattan to look after her sister Molly, seriously ill with pneumonia and a kidney infection. Pigeon moves in with a ranger friend who has a place on Ellis Island. There's not much natural wildlife unless you count her feathered namesakes, but she still manages to find a lot to contemplate--especially the suspicious suicide of a teenage girl who leaps from Liberty's ledge, followed not long after by the security guard who tried to stop her. But Anna's snooping puts her own life in jeopardy. She survives several attacks and a near drowning--events as frightening as any of the fires, floods, and hurricanes from her past adventures. Barr neatly ties up her plot--ending with a brilliant chase scene across the waters from Manhattan to Liberty Island. What next for Anna? Is there a national park in Las Vegas? --Dick Adler

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Skip It, 2008-04-22
This is the kind of book that you can skip-read every other page and not miss a thing.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

An American Icon, 2008-03-25
A family emergency brings Anna Pigeon rushing to New York. Molly, her sister, is gravely ill and in the hospital. Anna unrolls her "sleeping bag" with friends on Liberty Island and discovers accidents are murder. Determined to find answers Anna plunges into the melee ignoring warnings to stay clear.
LIBERTY FALLING is not Nevada Barr's best effort. The intrepid Anna is vulnerable as she haunts the halls of the hospital and fierce in her hunt for those that would destroy an American icon. Maybe it is the contrast of personalities that confuse the reader. But then Nevada Barr, always brings "arm chair travelers a bird's eye-view" of our unique national heritage.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

This reader is satisfied, 2008-01-05
I had read all the earlier and some of the subsequent Anna Pigeon books, and this was the book I was waiting for -- not so much for the mystery as for the subplot.

FINally Anna and Molly have scenes together in person (although Molly is comatose in the first one). FINally, a complicated, face-to-face denouement in the awkward triangle involving Anna and Molly and Frederick the Fed. (F the F is my favorite Nevada Barr character. I wish she had let him remain mysterious, wandering unexpectedly through every third book, sort of like Brenda Starr's Mystery Man. But this new side of FF was fun, too.) And I'm glad Barr gave Anna and Molly something really challenging to their sisterhood to work through.

As for the mystery itself -- OK enough. It was different for me. In the previous books, I was way ahead of Anna in figuring things out and had to watch her walk naively into the clutches of the very person who wanted her dead. In this book, Anna had it figured out and I was (mostly) clueless -- a nice change of formula.

I liked Anna's return to New York in real(?) time, rather than through memories. I work in an urban area where the National Park Service has a presence (Philadelphia), so it didn't seem odd to me. And I really connected to how out of place Anna feels there now.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

I couldn't stand the protagonist, 2007-10-18
I was pretty disgusted with the main character's petty behavior, judging people based on their attractiveness--and, of course, Barr used fat as a shorthand for "bad person"; there was way too many snide remarks about a character's weight, a characteristic that had zero bearing on the character's being good or bad.

Aside from that, the story was completely unbelievable, with a vacationing park ranger poking around in law enforcement matters outside of her jurisdiction, withholding evidence, and mucking about in crime scenes. As if that would hold up in court, or be tolerated by local officials! She also seemed to be messing around in an area that should be closed to the public from its description. The hurry-up-and-tie-everything-together at the end was contrived, the clues ridiculously lame, and the "let's toss in a random type of bad guy" at the end was just bizarre.

This was recommended to me by someone, and I'm going to go ask them for the three hours of my life back.


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

A middling entry in the Anna Pigeon series, but important for character development in series as a whole, 2007-06-13
The book is set in the Statue of Liberty National Monument (which includes Ellis Island). These sites are prominent in the American imagination but Anna Pigeon spends much of her time rummaging around the unfamiliar "backside" of these parks. The result is fascinating: I had no idea what was lurking off-stage at both sites.

The story combines a mystery set at the park with a continuation of Anna's personal sagas involving her sister and a more-or-less boyfriend. Because of the weight given this part of the story, you should read other Anna Pigeon books before tackling this one. In fact, this book really needs to be read in proper sequence because some of these personal issues reach resolution in a way that appears in later books - - which would then "give away" the story in this one.

The book has that odd feeling of those books and movies set in New York before 9/11. Anna regularly looks back to the Manhattan skyline and refers to the World Trade Center, for example. The sense of anachronism is enhanced by the fact that there are some white supremacist characters and Barr refers several times to the Oklahoma City bombings - - events that we all seem to have forgotten in the post-9/11 world. As it turns out, some of those things play an important part in the mystery. If these issues strike too close to home for you, don't read this book.

Overall, this is a welcome addition to the Anna Pigeon series, about in the middle in terms of overall quality. The mystery is perhaps on the low side of average, the issues surrounding the recurring characters on the high side of average, and the sense of place surprisingly good.

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